Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!

by George Putnam, president and CEO, Yankee Farm Credit

Everyone needs heroes. One of mine is the physicist Richard Feynman. I mention this because the feature article by Karen Murphy in this issue of Financial Partner magazine is on nanotechnology, and some consider Richard Feynman to be the father of nanotechnology.

A curious character
 Richard Feynman lived from 1918 to 1988. He taught at Cornell University for five years following World War II, but spent most of his career at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). One of the youngest scientists to work on the Manhattan Project, Feynman later won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965 for his work in quantum electrodynamics. He was also a member of the presidential commission that investigated the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

 One reason why I like Feynman is that he told the funniest stories, some of which he captured in his book, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character. The title says a lot about the man: he loved a good joke; he treated life as an adventure; he was curious about everything; and he was certainly a character!.

Room at the bottom
I also admire Feynman because he was a great teacher. He had a gift for explaining complex ideas in simple terms. One example is his famous 1959 speech, There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom, which is considered to be the first talk on nanotechnology. (This speech is easy to find on the Internet today.)

In his speech, Feynman proposed that manipulating individual atoms should be possible. He explored the implications of being able to do so, such as explaining how it would be possible to write all information from all the world’s books (at that time) in an amount of matter the size of a speck of dust.

His speech was so comprehensible by general audiences that Feynman later repeated it to high school physics students.

How not to fool yourself
Lately I’ve thought about Richard Feynman for another reason. At Yankee Farm Credit, I recently began discussing values with employees. “Integrity” is at the top of my list of important values, and my favorite discussion on integrity is from a commencement speech that Feynman gave at Caltech in 1974 titled Cargo Cult Science. (This speech is also easily found on the Internet.).

Feynman advised future scientists about scientific integrity, and his advice still applies to us today. He suggested questioning our own assumptions, theories and conclusions. “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.”

 It seems like good advice to me.

This letter appeared in the Spring 2008 issue of Financial Partner (F.P.) magazine, Yankee Farm Credit's customer publication. Click here if you would like to start receiving F.P. magazine in the mail.

Read the rest of the issue which includes:

• Nanotechnology - Agriculture's Next "Industrial" Revolution
• Association Update
• Young Entrepreneur Profile
• Washington Update
• Community Support

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